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Just this morning, a self-styled Group of the Committed, predominantly composed of EU officials, gathered in the French capital with delegates of President Trump, aiming to make more advances on a sustainable settlement for the embattled nation.

With President Volodymyr Zelensky insisting that a plan to halt the hostilities with Russia is "largely complete", not a single person in that room wished to risk retaining the Americans onboard.

Yet, there was an enormous elephant in the room in that impressive and sparkling summit, and the underlying tension was extremely strained.

Recall the actions of the past week: the Trump administration's controversial intervention in the South American nation and the American leader's declaration following this, that "we need Greenland from the standpoint of defense".

This massive island is the world's largest island – it's six times the area of Germany. It is situated in the Arctic but is an semi-independent territory of Copenhagen.

At the Paris meeting, Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, was positioned facing two influential personalities representing Trump: special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

She was facing pressure from her EU colleagues not to alienating the US over the Arctic question, for fear that that impacts US assistance for Ukraine.

Europe's leaders would have far preferred to compartmentalize Greenland and the debate on Ukraine apart. But with the diplomatic heat rising from the White House and Copenhagen, representatives of big European nations at the talks released a statement asserting: "Greenland is part of NATO. Stability in the Arctic must therefore be attained collectively, in cooperation with treaty partners including the US".

"The decision is for Denmark and the Greenlandic authorities, and them only, to determine on matters concerning the kingdom and Greenland," the communiqué added.

The announcement was received positively by Greenland's prime minister, Jens Frederik Nielsen, but critics argue it was tardy to be drafted and, because of the small group of supporters to the declaration, it did not manage to project a Europe united in purpose.

"Had there been a joint declaration from all 27 EU partners, along with alliance partner the UK, in defense of Copenhagen's sovereignty, that would have conveyed a powerful signal to the US," commented a European foreign policy specialist.

Reflect on the contradiction at hand at the Paris summit. Multiple EU government and other leaders, from the alliance and the EU, are attempting to secure the cooperation of the US administration in protecting the future independence of a European country (Ukraine) against the expansionist land claims of an external actor (Moscow), just after the US has intervened in sovereign Venezuela with force, arresting its head of state, while also continuing to actively threatening the autonomy of another EU member (Denmark).

To compound the situation – Denmark and the US are both members of the defensive pact NATO. They are, according to Danish officials, exceptionally close allies. At least, they were.

The dilemma is, if Trump were to fulfill his goal to bring Greenland under US control, would it represent not just an severe risk to NATO but also a major challenge for the EU?

Europe Risks Being Trampled Underfoot

This is far from the first instance President Trump has spoken of his intention to acquire Greenland. He's floated the idea of purchasing it in the past. He's also not excluded taking it by force.

He insisted that the island is "crucially located right now, Greenland is covered with foreign ships all over the place. It is imperative to have Greenland from the standpoint of national security and Copenhagen is not going to be able to provide security".

Copenhagen refutes that claim. It not long ago committed to spend $4bn in Arctic security including boats, drones and aircraft.

As per a bilateral agreement, the US has a defense installation already on Greenland – set up at the start of the Cold War. It has scaled down the number of personnel there from approximately 10,000 during the height of Cold War operations to about 200 and the US has frequently been criticized of overlooking Arctic Security, recently.

Copenhagen has indicated it is open to discussion about a bigger US footprint on the island and further cooperation but faced with the US President's warning of unilateral action, the Danish PM said on Monday that the US leader's goal to acquire Greenland should be taken seriously.

Following the Washington's moves in Venezuela this past few days, her counterparts throughout Europe are doing just that.

"These developments has just highlighted – yet again – Europe's fundamental shortcoming {